Emergency Response and Preparedness - Essay Example

Emergency Response and Preparedness (Student Name) (Course No.) (Lecturer) (University) (Date) Emergency Response and Preparedness Introduction The occurrence of emergencies and disasters often result in negative impacts on both the people and property. In some cases, the disasters contribute to deaths, serious psychological problems, and issues associated with deterioration of health conditions. There have been significant changes and reforms in the disaster managements systems used in the UK since World War II with an aim of reducing the number of human casualties affected by the events. Throughout the years, the country has been experiencing disasters associated with natural calamities, human activities, and biological and chemical processes. Since the occurrence of 9/11 terror attack and the London bombing which took place in 2005, there have been questions on the preparation of the states to manage disasters. In each disaster that occurs in the country, the threats associated with the magnitude management often result. The effective management of the risks from the disasters depends on steps in place to reduce the magnitude of the impacts; however, there is need to ensure involvement of the vulnerable communities (Bailey, 2007, 22). Besides, to ensure effectiveness and accountability, it is vital that each disaster management and preparedness method combines hazard reduction processes and vulnerability of the people. The flood that occurred in 2007 left 13 people dead and others displaced who currently reside in the risky areas of England and Wales, which in turn raises questions on the vulnerability of people to hazardous conditions. Due to the increasing vulnerability of the people to disaster, the UK government set up different institutions and corporate with the international communities working on the disaster management related activities with an aim of raising public awareness and educate them on the best ways of managing the disasters. Organizations involved emergency management and preparedness The government has been keen to revolutionize the disaster management and preparedness mechanisms since the occurrence of World War II. The major focus of the UK government is to protect the civilians; therefore, since the country began experiencing the nuclear attacks, the state enacted different laws such as the Civil Defense Act in 1948 that lays foundation the formations of different emergency response and preparedness institutions. Emergency management is not only the role of the central government but also the local agencies. With the level of flexibility among the local agencies in requesting assistance from international organizations, the UK government managed to set guidelines allowing the agencies to seek assistance through the lead departments of the government (Matthews, Smith & Knowles, 2009, 214). Several incidents that occurred in UK in 2000 including the frequent floods and Fuel Blockade raised concerns especially on the preparations in place to handle the emergencies. As a result, the government made adjustments and review in its disaster management strategies through its Home Office, which contributed to the establishment of the framework that would ensure adequate response and preparation for the emergencies at all the state levels. According to the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA), the UK majorly has two types of responders to the emergencies with clearly defined responsibilities within the Act. The Category 1 responders, as outlined by the Act include the police, rescue and health institutions, Environmental Agency, local institutions, and the Maritime Coastguard Agency. On the other hand, the Act spells out the institutions involved in Category 2 responders including the transport providers, Health and Safety Executive, Highway Agency, and providers of the utility services (Cabinet Office, 2009a). According to the CCA, there is need for Category 1 to have the emergency plan with inclusion of the detailed procedures that would assist to determine the occurrence of the risk. Emergency planning involves a systematic process of preparing and organizing the activities towards responding and recovering from the hazards. The process outlined in the CCA involves a series of steps: consultation and embedment process. Establishment of the action is applicable to both Category 1 and 2 responders. Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) CCS is an institution managed by the central government. To ensure effectiveness of the organization, CCS works closely with other government departments, devolved administration institutions, and other stakeholders. Moreover, the cooperation with different stakeholders would ensure enhancement in the ability of the country to prepare, respond, and recover from the occurrence of disasters and emergencies. On disaster management and preparedness, CCS has a distinct role as it is charged with the role of spotting the probable hazard, assessment of nature, and ensure there is adequate awareness in the potential hazard with both the state and vulnerable communities. However, it is vital to note that not all the disasters are predictable. Detection of the emerging issues at the earlier stage would ensure the establishment of accurate measures for assessing and responding to the disasters easily (Brebbia et al., 2011, 122). Moreover, CCS also undertakes the responsibility of scanning the possible emergencies, which has played an important in reducing the earlier gaps in the warning signs and improved awareness level. The government also mandates the CCS to establish the national risk assessment process valid for a period of five years. CCS also provides guidelines, which forms the basis of making decisions depending on the contingency in question. Although the UK government permits each department to have its emergency plan, the CCS plays critical role in establishing the Capability Programme, which aim to provide direction and coordination for emergency preparedness activities. To reduce people’s level of vulnerability, it is important to increase the level resilience among the people. Nonetheless, creation of sustainable resilient communities is becoming a great challenge in the UK due to the ever-changing demographic patterns, social related issues, technology that often result in unpredictable conditions. The central government also takes part in the management of emergencies depending on the magnitude and complexity associated with emergency conditions (Matthews, Smith & Knowles, 2009, 202). Although it is the responsibility of the CCS to undertake such responsibilities, the central government only comes in if the prevailing conditions exceed the capacity of the CCS and other local institutions operating in the UK. CCS also performs other duties besides handling the natural disasters. The institution also deals with terror related activities. Since its establishment, CCS has become an important institution in the UK that aids in creation of risk resilient societies and ensure improvement in the techniques used in preparing and responding to the hazards. In addition, CCS has assisted the country in addressing challenges associated with risk identification, assessment, planning, and management of different forms of contingencies. The National Resilience Capability Programme (NRCP) The government established the NRCP with an aim of improving the capacity of the UK towards the responses and recovery from the civil contingencies. To achieve such objective, NRCP majorly focuses on building the ability of the government to deal with the consequences considered familiar forms of emergencies irrespective of whether the emergencies are accidental, anthropogenic, and natural in nature. Moreover, the programme aims to identify, challenge, and monitor the level of capacity in each areas of state. To ensure effectiveness and efficiency in emergency preparedness and preparations, the NRCP works closely with the CCS to ascertain the ability needs to meet the National Planning Assumptions. Besides, the CCS also works with the state Department for Communication and Local Government (DCLG RED) which has the capacity of ensuring the information reaches the local institutions. The institution also works closely with the central government to ensure effectiveness towards responding to any form of emergency in the UK. NRCP has been able to meet its objective the arrangements coordinated through the Cabinet Office, which creates the crisis management guidelines understood and utilized across different government departments. To increase the scope of its operations, the NRCP also works at regional levels as well especially with the Regional Resilience Team (RRT). In emergency response and preparedness, the RRT plays a vital role as a channel of communication between the central government and the devolved administration (Dadson, 2012, 143). However, in the regions where the response activities are set to benefit from the regional coordination, there is often convention of the Regional Coordination Group (RegCG). It is significant to note that the approach used in the UK in addressing the emergency responses and preparedness are bottom-up which involves management and making decision at the lowest level possible. Hence, the NRCP ensure provision of important opportunities for various delegates to come together with an aim of developing the best strategy of improving resilience against the hazards. The UK uses a decentralized emergency management and preparedness structure. Therefore, the local institutions play critical role in managing the incidences (Sahin, Kapucu, & Unlu, 2008, 25). Besides, there are non-governmental organizations operating in the UK and contribute to emergency responses and preparedness. For example, the UK International Search and Rescue Team play an important role in responding to the humanitarian incidents across the country. The institution offers search and rescue services the state upon request. If the state experiences complexity in emergency management or the disaster covers a wider scope, the UK government often seeks for assistance the Lead Government Department. Upon involvement by the government, there is activation of the Cabinet Office Briefing, which supports and coordinates the decisions made by the LGDs (Cabinet Office, 2009a). The UK’s National Crisis Management and Coordination uses the interagency model to ensure effectiveness in the operations. The involved operations are Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBRA), Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), Strategic Coordination Group (SCG), Police National Information and Coordination Center (PNICC), Joint Intelligence Group (JIG), Joint Health Advisory Cell (JHAC), Ministry of Defense (MoD), and Regional Civil Contingencies Committee (RCCC). Source: (Cabinet Office, 2009a) Deficiencies in disaster management and preparedness To ensure adequacy in emergency preparedness and management, there is need have clear structure of coordinating the hazards while creating the resilient communities. Coordination is the major problem leading to inefficient management of the disasters especially in the Home Office which lacks clear framework that outline the role played by different state agencies. Consequently, there are cases associated with overlap of responsibilities. Besides, poor organizational structures often contribute to conflicts among the various lead agencies while addressing disaster related problems. The CCA was enacted in 2004 and introduced the framework that defines the role of each local agency. However, poor structures of the response systems and overlap of responsibilities are hindering the achievement of its objectives due to laxity and provision of response and preparedness services that do not meet the required international standards. The Home Office established the legal framework as well for the local agencies to ensure adequate response and preparation to the hazardous incidences (Sahin, Kapucu, & Unlu, 2008, 32). In the UK, framework plays important role in coordinating the various responsibilities at government levels. With the changing trends in the nature of the disasters, the government established the CCS in 2001 with an aim of coordinating the responsibilities undertaken by different agencies. Through the year, the UK government has been reforming its disaster management strategies. Besides poor management structures, another factor that contributes to inadequacies in disaster management is inadequate resource allocation. It is from such baseline that the international community such as the United Nations has been ensuring availability of resources and existence in the adequate emergency preparedness, which ensures improvement in response services. More importantly, the country lack early warning system especially for the floods and natural disasters. Considering the negative consequences of these activities, there is need to consider integration of different methodologies of detecting the hazards (Bailey, 2007, 40). The country also lack efficient mechanism of integrating and ensuring corporation of both the government agencies and international institutions in a bid to improve teamwork in issues associated with humanity services. Recommendations Emergency response and preparedness require teamwork to ensure the achievement of the desired results. The UK lacks clear framework of managing its different disaster management organizations. It is vital the government outlines the distinct role of all the players involved in emergency management to prevent overlap of responsibilities, waste, and misappropriation of the resources. For effective and efficient management of the practices involved disaster management, the involved institutions such as the central government, devolved local administrations, and international organizations need to work closely together and corporate effectively with an aim of finding solutions to the methods of reducing the number of casualties should the disasters occur. The management measures need to focus beyond the technical solutions within institutional arrangements by ensuring the existence of proper communication form between the various responders (Brebbia et al., 2011, 251). It is also important to identify and review the important processes of communication that majorly underpin the response arrangements. The UK emergency response and preparation management institutions continuously operate within the environments with constrained resources; therefore, the state needs to prioritize its critical activities, which it considers essential for effective response to the arrangements. In the modern society, technology plays critical to ensure that preparations and management of disasters acquire the appropriate information on the probability of disaster occurrence. Considering the geographical location of UK, it is prone to issues associated with climate variability such as flood related activities. Hence, it is critical to utilize modern technologies to monitor such conditions to prevent the occurrence of disasters without prior preparations (Dadson, 2012, 98). Although preventing the natural disasters is impossible, there are strategies that the government could employ to reduce the number of affected casualties and property destruction through ensuring the existence of adequate measures to reduce susceptibility of the humans. Besides, nature of the disasters are also changing which the state and other institutions to undertake activities on public education concerning the methods of preparing and responding to the disasters. Such practices would reduce the number of casualties. Conclusion In the UK, citizens are vulnerable to different forms of disasters. Therefore, it is critical to have properly defined emergency response and preparedness. It is from such background that the UK established several institutions to undertake various responsibilities. Protection of the citizens against any form of disaster is the sole responsibility of the central government and devolved institutions. To ensure effectiveness in the operations undertaken by the UK government in reducing the number of casualties and property destruction, the state has an efficient framework that ensures integration of different state agencies, the public, and international organizations. With the geographical location of the UK, it is vital that it has reliable disaster preparedness and management institutions with clearly defined responsibilities to ensure reduction in duplication of responsibilities. UK is vulnerable to various threats associated global warming, intensity of the rainfalls, and increasing levels of the sea resulting from the flood hazards. From both economical and technological point, prevention of the natural disasters is difficult; however, there are adequate measures that the country could employ to reduce the negative impacts through reducing the level of people’s vulnerability. Reducing the negative effects of the disasters is important as they affect the economic performance of the country. Therefore, to reduce such negative impacts, development of emergency response and preparedness is inevitable. References Bailey, I. 2007. Market Environmentalism, New Environmental Policy Instruments, and Climate Policy in the United Kingdom and Germany. Annals of The Association of American Geographers, 5(13), 19-45. Brebbia, C. A., Kassab, A., Divo, E., & International Conference on Disaster Management and Human Health. 2011. Disaster management and human health risk II: Reducing risk, improving outcomes. Southampton, UK: WIT Press. Cabinet Office. 2009a, March 26. Civil Contingencies Act. Retrieved June 8, 2016, from Cabinet Office: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ukresilience/preparedness/ccact.aspx#part2 Dadson, E. 2012. Emergency planning and response for libraries, archives and museums. London: Facet. Matthews, G., Smith, Y., & Knowles, G. 2009. Disaster management in archives, libraries and museums. Farnham, England: Ashgate. Sahin, B., Kapucu, N., & Unlu, A. 2008. Perspectives on Crisis Management in European Union Countries: United Kingdom, Spain, and Germany. European Journal of Economic and Political Studies , 1 (1), 19-45. Read More